Interspersal Technique and Behavioral Momentum for Reading Word Lists

Abstract. Academic tasks that include easy responses increase the probability that less preferred and/or more challenging tasks will be performed. The current study applied the process of arranging easier stimuli within reading word lists with behavioral momentum and an interspersal technique. We hypothesized that the behavioral momentum condition, which placed a series of easier words at the beginning of a reading word list task, would result in greater reading fluency for word lists, and that the interspersal condition, which interspersed easier words into a word list, would result in higher fluency for the target words. Fourth-grade students (n = 97) were randomly assigned to the behavior momentum, interspersal, or control condition. The results indicated that the participants assigned to the behavioral momentum condition read significantly more words correctly per minute than the participants assigned to the control condition (d = .70). No statistically significant differences were observed between the remaining conditions